Official Lumia shipment numbers confirms a disastrous Q2 2014

Microsoft has (unexpectedly) released their Q2 2014 Lumia shipment numbers, confirming only 5.8 million Windows Phones were sold, less than 2 million per month, leading to a $692 million loss for the division.

That’s even worse than the $452 million loss of Q1 2014, and given that Nadella has not been stingy with the knife it make us wonder if Windows Phone is next for the cutting board.

A loss of nearly $120 per handset makes us wonder if Microsoft would not have more success simply giving away Windows Phones for free, and actually save money in the process.

Now of course the poor performance in the quarter was predictable – Microsoft/Nokia’s product line was stale, and not very relevant or exciting to the market.

However the release of the NL 630, a terribly underspecced and uncompetitive handset, is hardly going to help, and the Lumia 930 is too little too late.

With the Nokia McLaren being cancelled, and the Surface Mini confirmed also, and Nokia’s ASHA, X and feature phone business also heading to the recycling bin, we have to wonder what’s next.

Update: According to the Verge the period of sales were just for 65, not 90 days, from April 25 to June 30th, meaning sales would be closer to 8 million per quarter, not just 5.8 million.

Not amazing, but at least not as disastrous as it first appeared.